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Pride at Work Stands in solidarity with the ‘Count Me In’ Movement

WHEREAS, Pride at Work and its chapters recognize that our movement is strongest when we act in solidarity and firmly support the reality that “an injury to one is an injury to all”; and

WHEREAS, members of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York have created the “Count Me In” campaign to energize the entire labor movement in support of the Trades in their battles with those particular segments of the New York City development community who are looking to break the Trades and to reverse decades of progress of moving working men and women safely into the middle class; and

WHEREAS, the Building Trades and Organized Labor have long been a pathway to the middle class for the working men and women in New York and around our nation and the Trades have worked for many years in partnership with the Edward J. Malloy Construction Skills program, Non-Traditional Employment for Women, and Helmets to Hardhats to expand building trades career opportunities to minorities, women, and veterans, among others; and

WHEREAS, the “Count Me In” campaign is a key component of keeping those opportunities and careers alive for these traditionally underserved communities; and

WHEREAS, the “Count Me In” campaign is springing up in major cities, such as Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles, among others around these United States; and

WHEREAS, corporate interests that do not respect project labor agreements or labor history attempt to break unions, while taking huge amounts of taxpayer money in the form of tax abatements and subsidies; and

WHEREAS, this is an attempt, much like the Janus court case, to “defund and defang” trades unions from providing safe workplaces and fair pay and benefits; and

WHEREAS, the safety record of the non-union construction sites in the City of New York and around the nation is a dismal and unacceptable record of death and injury; and

WHEREAS, “Count Me In” is central in not only producing the finest construction projects, but in keeping the men and women who build them safe and alive;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Pride at Work and its chapters fully supports our trades labor family and the “Count Me In” program in full solidarity.

Submitted by James Larson, Eastern New York Chapter of Pride at Work
Approved August 25, 2018